Part of: Mace vs. the Solicitor: the campaign against the prosecutor in her own cases (2025)
Three Men Arrested, the Fourth Entirely Exonerated: Prosecutors Reviewing the SLED Investigation Cite Problems With Mace's Credibility and Involvement in the Case
SLED arrested three of the four men Rep. Nancy Mace named on the House floor. The fourth, Brian Musgrave, was not charged, and three solicitors who reviewed SLED's investigation wrote that he is innocent and that Mace's credibility would be thoroughly undermined at trial. None of the seven warrants cites a video recording. They rest on a witness account. All three charged men deny the charges and are presumed innocent.
"Should Nancy Mace be called as a witness at trial in a prosecution stemming from any of the allegations in your report, her credibility would be thoroughly undermined by her false allegations against Mr. Musgrave." Solicitor Scarlett Wilson to SLED, Aug. 14, 2026
On Oct. 14, 2026, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division arrested three of the four men Rep. Nancy Mace named on the House floor on Feb. 10, 2025. Here is what the record shows.
- Three men were arrested, and all three deny it. They are presumed innocent. The charges rest on one night, Oct. 26, 2018.
- The fourth man, Brian Musgrave, was cleared. Three solicitors who reviewed SLED's investigation wrote that there is "not one speck of evidence" against him.
- The prosecutors cite problems with Mace's credibility and her role in the case. The solicitor who will prosecute wrote that her credibility "would be thoroughly undermined." Mace is named in none of the seven warrants.
- No video recording is cited. The warrants rest on a witness account. Mace told Congress she found video on a phone. The warrants describe a witness watching a security feed, two still images and a journal entry.
Three men arrested, all three deny it
A warrant is an accusation. Probable cause is not proof. All three men are presumed innocent, and all three say the charges are wrong.
- Brendan Patrick Bryant, 53, one count of voyeurism. His attorney told CNN that Bryant "adamantly denies" the allegations and that Mace's House floor speech "was full of falsehoods and blatant inconsistencies." He said he believes the "case should be contested and presented in the courtroom." In 2025 Bryant told the Associated Press he would "cooperate fully with any necessary legal processes to clear my name."
- John Douglas Osborne, 46, one count of first-degree assault and battery and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. His attorneys said he "is innocent of the charges brought against him and intends to defend himself vigorously."
- Eric Bernard Bowman, 46, voyeurism, obstruction of justice and publishing the name of a victim of criminal sexual conduct. Bowman told CNN in 2025 that "no wrongdoing has been committed." His attorneys did not respond to CNN on Oct. 14.
Seven warrants were sworn. Five concern Oct. 26, 2018. Two concern Bowman's conduct in March 2025, after the speech. All three men posted bond the same day, per The Post and Courier. The 9th Circuit Solicitor's Office will prosecute.
The fourth man was cleared
Mace put Brian Musgrave's photo on the same placard under the word "PREDATORS." SLED did not charge him. Three solicitors reviewed SLED's report and put their views in writing in August. Wilson and Stone wrote to SLED. Brackett wrote to Wilson.
- Kevin Brackett, Sixteenth Circuit, Aug. 21: "there is not one speck of evidence that substantiates any of the reckless accusations she made against Mr. Musgrave and that he is completely innocent of these outrageous claims." He added that "the investigation reveals nothing whatsoever that she could have seen that may have justified her making these terrible accusations in the first place."
- Scarlett Wilson, Ninth Circuit, Aug. 14: "Your report offers zero evidence that Mr. Musgrave committed any crime because zero evidence was presented to you." She wrote that Mace "only provided you questions and suppositions as to Musgrave's involvement," and that she "used his name in the context of rape and sex trafficking, implying he was guilty of both."
- Duffie Stone, Fourteenth Circuit, Aug. 18: Mace's public statements branding Musgrave "a predator, a rapist, and a human trafficker are shocking when she offered neither evidence nor even suspicions to law enforcement to justify her comments."
Solicitor Kevin Brackett to Solicitor Wilson, Aug. 21, 2026, page 1, as published by FITSNews. Highlighting added.
Solicitor Wilson, memo to SLED, Aug. 14, 2026, page 2. Highlighting added.
FITSNews reported that prosecutors "vindicated" Musgrave. His attorneys, Eric Bland and Ronald Richter, told CNN: "Obviously, Brian is happy not to have been criminally charged and not to be grouped with the others recently charged but it has opened up some pretty deep wounds." They added: "To this day Ms. Mace has never apologized to Brian and his family for what she falsely said about him."
What the prosecutors wrote about Mace's credibility
The solicitor who will prosecute the three cases, Scarlett Wilson, wrote to SLED Capt. Haley Nelson on Aug. 14:
"Without question, however, should Nancy Mace be called as a witness at trial in a prosecution stemming from any of the allegations in your report, her credibility would be thoroughly undermined by her false allegations against Mr. Musgrave."
Earlier in the same memo: "Her spurious claims against him demonstrate the severe credibility complications that taint some of the evidence underlying other allegations."
Stone wrote that "Congresswoman Nancy Mace made many allegations to law enforcement and to the public that have turned out to not be true." Brackett wrote that had Mace not been speaking on the House floor, "she would have and should have been sued into bankruptcy," a line about her accusations against Musgrave. Stone wrote that he agrees with Wilson's "assessment of the facts that SLED provided." Brackett wrote that he "concur[s] fully."
Solicitor Duffie Stone to SLED Capt. Haley Nelson, Aug. 18, 2026, page 2. Highlighting added.
Two limits apply. In the visible text, Wilson ties her credibility finding to the Musgrave allegations. Pages 4 to 11 and 13 to 17 of her memo are blacked out in the copy FITSNews published, so what she wrote about the rest is not public. And the word "inconsistencies" in this record belongs to Bryant's attorney, quoted above, not to the prosecutors.
Wilson also wrote that she would "cover each of the 26 allegations you outline," and that "So far, SLED has elected not to pursue warrants based on the evidence obtained in this investigation." That was Aug. 14. The warrants were sworn on Oct. 12 and cover one night.
No video recording, only a witness account
Mace told the House she found the video on Bryant's phone. In the Congressional Record: "I knew she was raped because I accidentally found the video of her being raped. I found photos and video of her assault on Patrick Bryant's phone." (H609) She also said: "None of this is conjecture. These are not allegations. These are facts. It is documented, sometimes with metadata." (H609)
The warrants do not cite a video recording. The voyeurism affidavits for Bowman and Bryant rest on this paragraph:
"A witness watching a home security video feed overheard the conversations and observed the incident. The witness observed [Bowman] and codefendant [Bryant] appear to take photographs and/or video of the Victim. The witness obtained and saved two still photographic images from the video feed and created an e-mail/journal entry detailing the incident from her perspective."
![Page 9 of the SLED affidavit for Eric Bowman, with two sentences highlighted: the witness 'appear[s] to take photographs and/or video' and 'obtained and saved two still photographic images from the video feed.'](/images/dispatches/2026-10-15-sled-arrests-three-mace-named-warrants-cite-no-video-recording-affidavit.jpg)
Page 9 of the SLED affidavit for Eric Bowman, as released by SLED. Highlighting added.
Osborne's three affidavits carry a shorter version: a witness "watching a home security video feed observed the incident and obtained and saved two still photographic images from the video feed." That is a live feed, two stills and a journal entry. It is a witness account. It is not a recording from anyone's phone. "Appear to" is the warrant's own phrase for the photographs and video, and the charge against Bryant is that he "knowingly viewed."
| What Mace said on the House floor, Feb. 10, 2025 | What the warrants say, Oct. 14, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Video and photos of the assault were on Bryant's phone. (H609) | No video from a phone. A witness account, two stills from a security feed and a journal entry. |
| The two men "had their phones out just like this, filming her as she was being raped." (H609) | The witness "observed" them "appear to take photographs and/or video." |
| "Just one camera I found had 10,633 videos on it." (H608) | No hidden camera, app or archive appears in any warrant. |
| "nonconsensual videos of women and underage girls" (H608) | One woman, then 23. No other victim. No minor. |
| "this cabal of sex traffickers" (H609) | No trafficking allegation in any warrant. |
| Assaults that "span over a decade, almost 20 years." (H609) | One night, Oct. 26, 2018. |
| A second video, of a different woman, which she said Bowman filmed. (H609) | No warrant describes it. |
| "It is documented, sometimes with metadata." (H609) | Mace is not named in any of the seven warrants, as a witness, a source or a victim. |
FITSNews reported that "none of the charges were related to alleged criminal sexual activity involving Mace as a victim." CNN reported that in the speech Mace "did not provide specific evidence of her claims." Wilson wrote that SLED's team reviewed "terabytes of information obtained through search warrants." No warrant cites a video from that material, and no video has surfaced in the public record.
Two warrants concern March 2025. SLED alleges Bowman performed a factory reset on a phone agents were seeking, and that he posted the woman's name and "a video where the Victim could be identified" on X. He is presumed innocent of those charges too. The affidavits do not say any video was on the phone or lost in the reset.
The coverage that said "recorded"
Several outlets turned the warrant's "appear to" into fact:
| Outlet | What it reported |
|---|---|
| Associated Press (carried by KSAT and others) | The men "took photos and recorded the assault ... state agents said." |
| The Post and Courier | "the other two watched and made recordings, the charging narrative said." |
| WACH Fox 57 | "Investigators said Bryant and Bowman watched, photographed, and recorded the incident." |
| Courthouse News | Bowman and Bryant "are accused of recording the sex acts." |
| Just The News | "the other two men watched and photographed the incident." |
CNN quoted the warrant's "appear to take photographs and/or video." ABC News 4 and Newsweek described the security feed and the two still images. None of the stories we reviewed reported a recovered video.
What Mace has said
Mace has not commented on the arrests, Live 5 News reported. Her office issued a release the same day on her legislation. Newsweek reports her team said she cannot say more "as she is under a court order in the civil case."
In her Dec. 19, 2025 answer in Berg v. Bryant (No. 2025-CP-10-03124), Mace's filing states that she "viewed a video on Bryant's phone depicting an unconscious woman being sexually assaulted" (paragraph 6) and that her statements concern events "on or about October 26, 2018, based on materials she discovered on Bryant's phone" (paragraph 2). The filing also states that she accessed the phone "with his express permission."
Sources
- SLED, "SLED Charges Three Charleston County Men with Sexually Related Offenses," Oct. 14, 2026, with the seven attached warrants and affidavits: sled.sc.gov
- Rep. Nancy Mace, House floor speech, Feb. 10, 2025, Congressional Record, vol. 171, no. 27, pp. H607 to H612
- Nancy Mace, Answer to Amended Third-Party Complaint, Berg v. Bryant, No. 2025-CP-10-03124, filed Dec. 19, 2025, paragraphs 2 and 6
- Scarlett Wilson, memorandum to SLED Capt. Haley Nelson, Aug. 14, 2026, pp. 1 to 3 (redacted copy); Duffie Stone, letter to Capt. Nelson, Aug. 18, 2026, pp. 1 to 2; Kevin Brackett, letter to Solicitor Wilson, Aug. 21, 2026, p. 1. All three as published by FITSNews
- CNN, Associated Press, The Post and Courier, WACH Fox 57, Courthouse News, Just The News, Live 5 News, Newsweek, all Oct. 14, 2026
Read next
October 17, 2026 · DispatchSLED Checked 26 of Mace's Allegations. The Prosecutor Called Her Description of the Video 'Inaccurate, if Not False.'
SLED's 147-page report looked at 26 allegations Rep. Nancy Mace made against four men on the House floor. The Post and Courier got the report and the prosecutor's memo through an open records request. Solicitor Scarlett Wilson wrote that the video Mace described shows the opposite of what she said, calling her description 'inaccurate, if not false'. On a separate claim, four witnesses told SLED the camera she called hidden in Bryant's condo was in plain view. SLED also found no child sexual abuse images. All four men named by Mace issued strong denials. Mace did not respond to the paper.
October 15, 2026 · DispatchSolicitor Scarlett Wilson to SLED: Mace's Credibility "Would Be Thoroughly Undermined"
In an August 14, 2026 Memorandum of Review to SLED, published October 14 by FITSNews and ABC News 4, Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson wrote that Rep. Nancy Mace's credibility 'would be thoroughly undermined by her false allegations against Mr. Musgrave.' Wilson also wrote that her review offers 'zero evidence' against Brian Musgrave and that Solicitors Duffie Stone and Kevin Brackett 'concur with my assessments.' Musgrave denies Mace's accusations and has not been charged. The letters are prosecutors' reviews, not court findings. Mace has not publicly addressed them.
October 15, 2026 · Dispatch"She Would Have and Should Have Been Sued Into Bankruptcy": Three South Carolina Prosecutors on Nancy Mace's Accusations Against Brian Musgrave
Three of South Carolina's senior prosecutors reviewed the state investigation of Rep. Nancy Mace's accusations, and each wrote, in a letter now public, that her public accusations against Brian Musgrave lacked evidence. Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson called them 'spurious claims' resting on 'the lack of even a scintilla of evidence' (Aug. 14, 2026). Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone wrote that her statements 'branding Brian Musgrave a predator, a rapist, and a human trafficker are shocking' (Aug. 18). Sixteenth Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett wrote that 'there is not one speck of evidence' and that, had she not been protected by the Constitution, she 'would have and should have been sued into bankruptcy' (Aug. 21). FITSNews and ABC News 4 published the letters on Oct. 14, 2026. The letters are shown here. Musgrave has always denied the accusations. Mace has not retracted them.
October 17, 2026 · DispatchEXCLUSIVE: Brian Musgrave Speaks to ABC News 4 After Three Prosecutors Clear Him
In an exclusive interview with ABC News 4 (WCIV), Brian Musgrave describes learning from a reporter's text, while driving to buy birdseed, that Rep. Nancy Mace had named him in her February 10, 2025 House floor speech, and what it was like to read the letters of three South Carolina solicitors. Solicitor Kevin Brackett wrote that there is “not one speck of evidence that substantiates any of the reckless accusations she made against Mr. Musgrave and that he is completely innocent of these outrageous claims.” Solicitor Scarlett Wilson wrote of “the lack of even a scintilla of evidence.” Solicitor Duffie Stone wrote that Mace offered “neither evidence nor even suspicions.” Musgrave’s federal suit against Mace was dismissed on August 20, 2025 on immunity grounds, and the court offered no opinion on whether her allegations were true. ABC News 4 reported that Mace has offered no apology. The interview is ABC News 4’s, by Madison Wilber, Oct. 16, 2026.
August 23, 2026 · DispatchMace Won't Talk About Brian Musgrave, and He Isn't Even Under the Gag Order
A year ago this week, a federal judge ended Brian Musgrave's defamation case against Rep. Nancy Mace, not because her 'predator' accusation was found true, but because the court held she was immune. Eighteen months after she named the Fort Mill businessman from the House floor, there is still no criminal charge, no evidence produced, no retraction, and SLED has told him he is not a target. Musgrave was never a party to the case Mace is gagged in, and his own case is closed, so nothing bars her from answering for the accusation. She simply does not.
October 17, 2026 · DispatchSolicitor Kevin Brackett: Without Her House Floor Protection, Mace "Would Have and Should Have Been Sued Into Bankruptcy"
In an August 21, 2026 letter to Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, copied to a State Law Enforcement Division captain and published October 14, 2026 by FITSNews and ABC News 4, Sixteenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor Kevin S. Brackett wrote that had Rep. Nancy Mace not been speaking on the House floor and protected from civil liability by the Constitution, she "would have and should have been sued into bankruptcy." He also wrote that "there is not one speck of evidence that substantiates any of the reckless accusations she made against Mr. Musgrave" and that he wondered whether Mace would "muster a sufficient sense of shame to compel an apology." Brian Musgrave denies Mace's accusations and has not been charged. A solicitor's letter is a prosecutor's review, not a court finding.